Friday, January 18, 2013

.red ox inn's vegetable lasagna.

remember this post? on our 2nd wedding anniversary peter and i dined at the red ox inn and i just about died and went to heaven while eating their delicious vegetable lasagna. i seriously had dreams of this dish and i was possibly thinking of eating it every day! i even received a couple emails from some of you asking me to try and re-create it for my blog as most of you live afar and wouldn't get the opportunity to try it out. the only problem, i didn't know how to make it. so i began to think of ways to make it at home. i thought of taking my mother-in-law there to see if she could copy it, then i thought of emailing the owners of the restaurant and begging on my hands and knees for the recipe. then i remembered this great feature that canadian house & home does in their magazine titled 'ask a chef' column and i thought "brilliant!". besides it being one of my favorite columns, it would be the perfect chance to get the actual recipe right from the source!

so friends, you are now looking at the february issue [out on new stands now] and my personal email [in print! yeah!] basically begging eric vellend [the food editor] to get the recipe directly from the red ox inn.and guess what, he did!

now, lets all drool over that dreamy picture on the right and get to cooking! here's the recipe for anyone inclined to see what i've been making all this fuss about!

Vegetable Lasagna

[recipe by sean o'connor from the red ox inn, via canadian house and home]

makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

Carrot Puree

1 lb Carrots, peeled and sliced

2 cups Carrot Juice

1 1/2 tsp Cider Vinegar

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Vegetables

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into 1/2" pieces

2 tbsp Canola Oil

2 tbsp Olive Oil

1/2 cup diced Red Onion

1 lb Baby Spinach

1 tbsp Butter

1/4 lb Wild Mushrooms, thickly sliced

Truffle Cream

1 1/2 tbsp Butter

1 1/2 tbsp All-purpose Flour

1 cup Homogenized Milk, hot

1/2 cup Whipping Cream, hot

1 Bay Leaf

5 sprigs Thyme

1/2 tsp Truffle Oil

Parmesan Chips

1 cup grated Parmigiana-Reggiano

Assembly

6 4"x 8" fresh Lasagna sheets, each cut into 24" diameter circles

1 cup Ricotta, mixed with 1 1/2 tbsp Browned Butter

Preparation:

1] To make carrot puree, combine first 3 ingredients in saucepan over high heat. Reduce to simmer. Cook until carrots are soft; transfer carrots to food processor. Add 1/4 cup cooking liquid to carrots. Puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer back to saucepan.

5] To assemble lasagna's, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Reheat carrot puree. In a frying pan, reheat truffle cream with cauliflower and mushrooms. In a separate pan, reheat spinach. Boil pasta until al dente. Drain. On 4 warmed plates, spread some carrot puree. Top each with a pasta round. Top with some cauliflower mixture and spinach. Repeat a layer of pasta and vegetables. Top with pasta, a parmesan crisp and dollop of ricotta.